Arkansas Tech’s Laithe Massey, Natalia Santos and Jenny Vining have earned a spot on the 2010-11 preseason All-Gulf South Conference West Division basketball teams.
Massey is the Wonder Boys’ lone representative on the men’s preseason honor squad. He averaged 9.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game while helping Arkansas Tech finish with a 30-2 overall record in 2009-10.
The Wonder Boys won their first GSC West Division regular season title and their second consecutive GSC Tournament championship last March. They went on to reach the second round of the NCAA Division II Tournament for a second consecutive year.
Massey, a 6-foot-4 senior point guard from Heber Springs, enters the 2010-11 season with 469 career points, 375 career rebounds, 268 career assists and 131 career steals.
He ranked fifth in the GSC in assists, steals and assist-to-turnover ratio on his way to earning All-GSC West Division honors at the end of the 2009-10 season.
Santos, a 6-foot-2 junior forward from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Vining, a 5-foot-9 senior guard from Marshall, were named to the 2010-11 women’s preseason All-GSC West Division team.
Santos (photographed, middle right) averaged 16.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game a year ago.
She finished among the GSC leaders in scoring (6th), rebounding (4th) and field goal percentage (4th, .531) during her sophomore season. Santos was named All-GSC West Division and All-NCAA Division II South Region.
Like Santos, Vining made a large impact on the Arkansas Tech program in her first season in the green and gold.
Vining (photographed, bottom right) was named NCAA Division II All-America, NCAA Division II All-South Region and All-GSC West Division after averaging 17.1 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game in 2009-10.
She ranked third in the GSC in scoring, seventh in assists and steals (2.1 per game), first in 3-point field goals made (3.4 per game) and fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (.381).
Santos and Vining helped the Golden Suns finish 31-3 overall last year. Tech’s women won the GSC West Division regular season, GSC Tournament and NCAA Division II South Region titles before falling to Franklin Pierce (N.H.) in the national quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Click here for more information about the 2010-11 Wonder Boys.
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